The voices / 40 fragments

Ellis Peters

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Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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01Undated

Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies all problems.

Ellis Peters / quote

02Undated

Bitter though it may be to many, Cadfael concluded, there is no substitute for truth, in this or any case.

Ellis Peters / quote

03Undated

The trouble with me, he thought unhappily, is that I have been about the world long enough to know that God's plans for us, however infallibly good, may not take the form we expect and demand.

Ellis Peters / quote

04Undated

God, nevertheless, required a little help from men, and what he mostly got was hindrance.

Ellis Peters / quote

05Undated

Once, I remember, Father Abbot said that our purpose is justice, and with God lies the privilege of mercy. But even God, when he intends mercy, needs tools to his hand.

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06Undated

There never was, for all I could ever learn, a time when living was easy and peaceful.

Ellis Peters / quote

07Undated

A man must be prepared to face life, as well as death, there's no escape from either.

Ellis Peters / quote

08Undated

Oh, sometimes I like to put the sand of doubt into the oyster of my faith." (Br. Cadfael)

Ellis Peters / quote

09Undated

Child, [death] is with us always,” said Cadfael, patient beside him. “Last summer ninety-five men died here in the town, none of whom had done murder. For choosing the wrong side, they died. It falls upon blameless women in war, even in peace at the hands of evil men. It falls upon children who never did harm to any, upon old men, who in their lives have done good to many, and yet are brutally and senselessly slain. Never let it shake your faith that there is a balance hereafter. What you see is only a broken piece from a perfect whole.” “Such justice as we see is also but a broken shred. But it is our duty to preserve what we may, and fit together such fragments as we find, and take the rest on trust.

Ellis Peters / quote

10Undated

I have always known that the best of the Saracens could out-Christian many of us Christians.

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11Undated

One century's saint is the next century's heretic ... and one century's heretic is the next century's saint. It is as well to think long and calmly before affixing either name to any man.

Ellis Peters / quote

12Undated

Only people who're positive enough to have friends have enemies. When you're as glum and morose as he was, people just give up and go away.

Ellis Peters / quote

13Undated

Every man has within him only one life and one nature ... It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely.

Ellis Peters / quote

14Undated

What are wits for unless a man uses them?

Ellis Peters / quote

15Undated

Don't reach for the halo too soon. You have plenty of time to enjoy yourself, even a little maliciously sometimes, before you settle down to being a saint.

Ellis Peters / quote

16Undated

There's an art in every labour.

Ellis Peters / quote

17Undated

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment!

Ellis Peters / quote

18Undated

They sell courage of a sort in the taverns. And another sort, though not for sale, a man can find in the confessional. Try the alehouses and the churches, Hugh. In either a man can be quiet and think.

Ellis Peters / quote

19Undated

So, wonder! I also wonder about you," said Cadfael mildly. "Do you know any human creatures who are not strangers, one to another?

Ellis Peters / quote

20Undated

I think there are some who live on a knife-edge in the soul, and at times are driven to hurl themselves into the air, at the mercy of heaven or he'll which way to fall.

Ellis Peters / quote

21Undated

Well, a man can but hold fast to what he believes right, and even the opponent he baulks should value him for that.

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22Undated

Perhaps thought really is prayer.

Ellis Peters / quote

23Undated

He prayed as he breathed, forming no words and making no specific requests, only holding his heart, like broken birds in cupped hands,

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24Undated

Well, you can fairly claim the day hasn't been wasted,' owned Cadfael generously, 'if something's been learned.

Ellis Peters / quote